My First Fire Emblem Game

Alright, since this is my first Fire Emblem game I ever played I was wondering if I should either play the Casual mode where if any of my units die, they come back at the end of the chapter I believe, or if I should play the Classic mode, where my units die for good.

One, will make it easier to play for beginners like myself getting introduced to the franchise. The other is closer to the game's roots. I'm a bit undecided on this one. I'm always up for a challenge, however, I'm not fond of said challenges punishing me hard for a mistake I didn't manage to catch.

Casual mode? Units resurrecting from the dead? PFFT. Play the game like a real FE player. I was like... 13 when I got FE7 for the GBA and I didn't need such a handicap.

You haven't played FE7 or SS though? You're missing out.

I'd recommend doing a first run on Classic just to get the Fire Emblem experience, whie maybe switching to Casual afterwards on more, well, casual playthroughs since it does make playthroughs much less stressful, especially on higher difficulties.

Classic all the way. I really didn't like that they added in the casual feature. It takes away from the game, it always had a reputation for being difficult and skill based, now that reputation might be tarnished.

I also think that playing on classic first will prepare you for other FE games. If you get used to that handicap, you won't be able to enjoy the excellence that are the other FE games (besides Shadow Dragon. That's not a fire emblem game. It doesn't count.)

quote GlancingReverse

While I kind of agree, I can definitely understand why they put it in. I think they mentioned this in an interview for FE12, but Permadeath is scary. No matter how you try to put it, mistakes that can't be fixed really put people away from the game. Just losing the character for one map helps people ease into the series and discover everything else great about it. When you first start out playing Fire Emblem, everything's a mess and you don't really know what to do, so lessening the impact of your mistakes is a good step.

I agree with this, as much as I personally don't care for the casual mode I can see why casual players would use it. It would defiantly be useful if someone wanted to play through the game as quick as possible.

quote GlancingReverse

While I kind of agree, I can definitely understand why they put it in. I think they mentioned this in an interview for FE12, but Permadeath is scary. No matter how you try to put it, mistakes that can't be fixed really put people away from the game. Just losing the character for one map helps people ease into the series and discover everything else great about it. When you first start out playing Fire Emblem, everything's a mess and you don't really know what to do, so lessening the impact of your mistakes is a good step.

That is exactly what I was thinking when I first heard of Permadeath for Fire Emblem. I'm completely new to the series, so the idea of permanently losing a character that I may have spent hours leveling, didn't really give me a good vibe for the game. But, then again it's logical for it to happen, it makes the game realistic and challenging, a death character should stay dead.

Which reminds me of Demon's Souls for the PS3. If you haven't played that game (do at some point in your life) it really punishes you for making mistakes. It takes good skill, timing, and a general knowledge of the areas you're in to be able to survive and eventually beat the game.

I'll be playing it in the classic mode then. Hopefully it'll be easy for me to pick up the game's mechanics quickly enough. I played the Demo, but it's not enough, I wish it could progress a little bit more.